Should I upgrade my iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10?

How well does iOS 10 run on an iPhone 5s or iPhone 6? If you’re still rocking an older Apple phone, you might be wondering whether to take the plunge and download and install iOS 10 to your handset. But can the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 handle the latest iOS?

Updating the older iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 comes with all kinds of problems and concerns. How can you free up enough storage to update? And what happens if iOS 10 is buggy or slow once you’ve updated?

Well, we’ve taken the plunge and updated our old iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 mobiles to the latest version of iOS, to bring you this complete guide.

Updating the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 to iOS 10: What is iOS 10 and do I need it?

Apple’s iOS software is the first thing you see when you load up your iPhone 5s or 6. It allows you to load up your apps, provides security to keep your data safe and gives you control over key features like screen brightness. Check out our ‘What is iOS‘ guide for more info.

Apple is constantly updating iOS to provide your iPhone and iPad with new features. The latest version, iOS 10, adds a lot of cool new tools and improves on an awful lot of existing apps and features, such as Maps, Messages, Photos and the lock screen. Take a look at our ‘Everything you need to know about iOS 10‘ guide for an in-depth explanation.

Updating your iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10 is far from essential, but you’ll be missing out on a lot of key iPhone features if you decline.

Updating the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10: How well does it run?

Thankfully iOS 10 seems to run perfectly fine on the older iPhone 5s, as well as the slightly newer iPhone 6. It’s not as silky smooth as the iOS 10 experience on the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7, of course, with their more modern processors. But the odd stammer as you flick around menus is all you’ll see.

We found we could still play games such as Goat Simulator, Alto’s Adventures and Dragon Hills with a near-perfect framerate too. Likewise, apps such as Photoshop Mix didn’t struggle on the iPhone 5s with iOS 10 installed.

Updating the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10: What iOS 10 features are missing on the older iPhones?

Of course, Apple has held back some iOS 10 features from the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, most likely to get a better performance out of the phone – or simply because the older mobile hardware doesn’t support them.

The most obvious differences can be seen in the camera app, where the likes of Live Photos are not available. However, some other features from the likes of Apple’s Messages app are also not available on the 5s or 6.

Updating the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10: How can I free up storage space for the iOS 10 update?

So, you’ve decided to bite the bullet and update your iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10. The first step is to ensure you have enough storage space to download and install the update.

The easiest way to do this is by deleting any old apps that you have lingering on your desktops, which you aren’t using any more. Just press your finger on them until they start shaking, then tap the ‘x’ icon in the right corner to delete.

You can go to the iPhone 5s’ settings and then General and then Storage & iCloud Usage to see how much space you have remaining. The iOS 10 update is over 1GB in size, but we’d recommend having at least 2GB of space available before proceeding.

Updating the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10: How do I update my iPhone 5s to iOS 10?

Once you have enough space available on your iPhone 5s or iPhone 6, it’s time to actually download and install the update. Check out our guide to updating your iPhone for full instructions. It’s a quick and simple affair, although you’ll need to make sure that your iPhone is charged up or plugged in and connected to a decent WiFi network before you get started.

Updating the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 to iOS 10: How can I speed up my iPhone after updating to iOS 10?

If you do find your iPhone starts to show signs of lag after updating to iOS 10, there are some simple steps that you can take to boost performance.

For one, turning off animations can help to make performance smoother. Head to your iPhone’s settings menu, then General, then Accessibility. In here you’ll see the Reduce Motion option. Turn this on and you’ll no longer get those little transitions when opening and closing apps.

You can also turn on the Increase Contrast option inside the Accessibility menu, to remove those transparent menus which again suck some processing power. And if you have a snazzy 3D wallpaper enabled, try swapping this for a static photo. You can do that in Settings, Wallpaper.

If you’re still struggling, try clearing the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6’s memory occasionally. To do this, hold down the power button until the power down screen appears (asking you to slide the button to turn off the iPhone). Now just hold down the home button for a few seconds and it’ll flash back to your desktops. The memory should now be cleared, which hopefully will boost your performance temporarily.